


RWBY: Light

by Arubekh



Category: RWBY
Genre: RWBY x Reader, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-09
Updated: 2017-11-29
Packaged: 2018-12-13 09:09:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11756610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arubekh/pseuds/Arubekh
Summary: Running alongside the RWBY canon, follow the story of (Y/N) Luman and his friend Ashley Ghost as they train at Beacon as part of team LGHT!





	1. "Birdy Boy"

With your face practically pressed up against the glass, you gazed down at the view of Vale. It was simple compared to your original home in Atlas, but you still liked what you saw. Though if you were being completely honest, the city below wasn’t what you were looking at. You just simply enjoyed being so high. The delightful feeling in your stomach that you got whenever you were amongst the clouds was what you lived for. In fact, you wished you were on the other side of the glass, but several attendants told you had to be “in the airship” and not “on or around the airship”. This did disappoint you a little, as you also wanted to have a cool entrance to your new home at Beacon Academy, but it wasn’t enough to ruin your mood. You were over the moon when you found out you had got accepted, and even more so to hear your best friend had also got in. You look round to her to see how excited she was, but all she had was a playfully judgemental look on her face.

“What?” you asked her. “(Y/N), you’re not supposed to be standing on the benches,” she replied with an eye roll. You looked down, and you were in fact standing on the seating area that stretched across the room.

“To be fair Ashley, no-one is sat down on it,” you gesture at everyone else, whom are also either pressed against the glass or hugging and conversing with their colleagues.

“No-one is stood on it either! Is this the first impression you want to be giving?” she now had her arms folded.

“Well I wanted to have a better first impression but they wouldn’t let me!” you complain in a childish way. Before Ashley could retort, you hear a formal female voice start talking.

“Hello, and welcome to Beacon,” the voice begins, though you can’t locate where it’s coming from. However, when Ashley starts giggling, you realise you are stood in a hologram.

“Gah!” you exclaim, jumping off the bench and next to your friend, as you swat yourself down as if you were covered in bugs. A few of the other new students laughed around you.

“Is that the impression you were aiming to make?”

“Shut up Ash,” you nudge her, then direct your attention back to the hologram.

“My name is Glynda Goodwitch. You are among a privileged few who have received the honour of being selected to attend this prestigious academy. Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsman and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now, it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world”. Upon finishing her speech, the hologram of Glynda fades away. Several people suddenly gasp in awe at the view through the window.

“Wait, how have some people not noticed the view?” you say, looking around confused.

“Firstly, no-one is as weirdly obsessed about heights as you are (Y/N),” Ashley begins. “And second, look again”.

You hop back onto the bench to see what she is talking about, and then you see it. Set on the top of an enormous cliff face, with several cascading waterfalls around it, was the Vale Huntsman and Huntress academy of Beacon. Instantly you can see where it got its name, with its most prominent feature being a central towering lighthouse that shines over an expansive sea. The academy was surrounded by several rivers, which led into large wooded areas, and then a mountain range that encloses the rest. The smile you had was practically leaving your face. This place already looked so much better than the equivalent place in Atlas. It was really high up, had much more beautiful scenery and it also wasn’t part of the local military, which was a major point for you. The idea of being part an army wasn’t appealing in the slightest, so you applied here with your best friend.

You are almost completely lost in gazing at the glorious sight out the window, but the retching sound of someone throwing up brought you back. You look down next to you to see some guy vomiting into a bin.

“Uh… you ok there, bud?” you ask him, even though you can clearly see he isn’t.

“Oh? Yeah, I’m fine,” he responds in a timid voice, that had a higher pitch than someone his age usually would. He wiped his mouth and gave his best confident smile, but it was clear he was putting it on. “Sorry, just never been good with heights, you know?” he scratches the back of his head, eyes looking at the ground.

“Well, no actually, this is sort of my element,” you say. He gives you a curious look in return.

“How so?” he asks.

“Maybe I’ll show you when we land, though I hear we also have an entrance test of some sort so you might see it then too,” you give a mischievous grin, excited at the possibility of being able to show off to someone.

“Well, ok then”. He extends a hand to you, but then takes it back and switches, remembering that was the one he wiped his mouth with. “Jaune Arc is my name by the way”.

You accept the hand shake. “(Y/N) Luman, and this here is my friend, Ashley Ghost”.

Your friend steps forward and shakes his hand too, though Jaune instantly flinches and shakes his hand in pain. “Ow! That’s quite a handshake you have there, Ashley, wow”.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, my bad!” she exclaims, placing a hand over her mouth. “It’s been a while since I’ve met someone new so I forget to say sometimes”.

Jaune still looks confused, so Ash pulls up her right sleeve to reveal complex machinery. “Wait? You have a metal arm?” the still perplexed student’s eyes widen, though out of curiosity.

“Yup, so sometimes I forget my own strength, sorry again”.

“How did you lose it?” Jaune asks. He has an innocent tone in his voice so he most likely doesn’t mean to sound insensitive, and it wasn’t like he could know it was a touchy subject. You can already see Ashley shifting from foot to foot.

“Well, I built it so it’s no surprise you don’t know how to use it properly,” you interject.

“Hey!” she punches you in the arm in response to that, which hurt a lot more as it was once again her prosthetic that she had used. “Why do you always have to bring that up?” she chastises you in a playful way, though you can see in her eyes she’s grateful for dodging the subject before.

“We don’t want people thinking you’re the brains of the operation,” you retort back. Before she can fire back some insult or remark, Jaune pushes past you two and heads to the newly opened door, that everyone else seemed to be filing toward. Somehow the both of you hadn’t noticed that the ship had docked. You give each other a quick look, then dart toward the exit, ready to see your new home.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The view from the ship had nothing on what you were met with. The academy was a spectacle in itself. Right in front of you was the central courtyard, which was circular and surrounded with pillars, arches, and various fountains and ponds. The area was symmetrically patterned with lamps and banners, accompanied by a miasma of trees and bushes. In the centre was a large sculpture that depicted a statue of a huntsman and huntress standing over beowolf. Leading on from that was the castle itself, which was the most accurate description for it. The large amount of towering structures weren’t organised in a regular pattern, but had arches, bridges and other outstretching parts connecting them all.

“(Y/N)? you’re drooling,” you hear Ashley giggle beside you.

“No, I’m not! Stop ruining the moment!” you complain, wiping your mouth all the same just in case.

“No, you’re ruining the moment. I know what you’re thinking”.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” you respond, though the entire time you haven’t taken your eyes off Beacon. “Though on the off chance you do…” you quickly turn to her and give your best puppy dog eyes, “Pleeeeease?” you beg. You both stare at each other for a while, but eventually she caves in and rolls her eyes.

“Fine! But be quick we have a place to be you know?” she tries to sound mad, but is clearly holding back a smile.

You can’t even say ‘thank you’ you’re so giddy. Quickly checking the straps on your backpack are secure, you kneel down. Using the neural link, you activate what’s concealed inside. With a collection of metallic clicks and whirring, two large wings are sprouting from your back. Wearing the biggest grin on your face, you propel yourself of the ground and kick in the thrusters, shooting directly up into the sky. The wind rushing through your hair and the forces of gravity trying to pull you back down felt so good. You flew upward for a few seconds, then turned off the power, as you gradually slowed. As you reached the peak of your momentum, you arced your body to be facing straight down. You were suddenly plummeting back down to the ground. The speed you were going was extremely fast, but it wasn’t enough, so you retract your wings to lessen your drag. You were now going at terminal velocity, with the floor getting closer and closer. Holding your wrist to your face, you look at the display on your watch. ‘2000ft’, the gauge read, but was rapidly descending. 1750ft. 1500ft. 1200ft. Though you’ve been chastised many a time for it, you were leaving this very late. At 500ft, you let out a guttural “WOOOOOO!” as you quickly engaged your wings and pulled up, shooting down the pavilion at breakneck speeds, past a crowd of students who were a mixture of startled, in awe and some who hadn’t even noticed until you whizzed by. You were barely a meter off the ground, you had really left it to the last second this time. Gently panning the wings slightly, you turn toward the large collection of arches. As you reach them you expertly slalom though them, not even brushing past a single one. Once you fly out the last one you execute another manoeuvre and fly toward the academy itself, gaining altitude so you can a good view of it all. Once you were higher than the tallest tower, you descend toward the spire, and slow down your velocity. When you got close enough, you retracted your wings and flipped your feet to land, gripping onto the pole protruding from the top with your hands.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The man sat in his office, sipping from his mug that he is never seen without. He was reviewing the files on the new students, double checking all the details to make sure they were up to standard. As he was doing this, the calm clicking and whirring of the clockworks above was interrupted by a large ‘THUNK’ from above. The headmaster simply smiled and looked out his window at the airship docked at the cliff. The new students were here. He pivots his chair and stands up, picking up his cane, that was resting on the side of his desk. Calling the lift, he pulls open his scroll and brings up the details on a particular student. The display shows the file for one “(Y/N) Luman”. Chuckling to himself, he looks up at the ceiling.  
“That answers that question then,” he says, pocketing the device and entering the lift to greet the soon to be Huntsman and Huntresses.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You leant out from the spire, keeping one hand on the pole, and took in the beautiful surroundings. From here you could see Vale in the distance, as well as the outstretching sea to the west. Boats were leaving and arriving in the docks, ranging from small ships to enormous cargo vessels, transporting large crates bearing the Schnee company symbol. You could even see a few boats making their way to hear, likely looking to dock with the small port at the bottom of the cliff that you noticed earlier from the airship. Below you, you could see the crowd of new students filing into a large building, which looked like it contained a hall of some sort. There were a few groups of others doing their own thing, chatting, looking around Beacon on ground level and some… Wait was that an explosion in the central area?

“Clearly someone doesn’t know their dust,” you snicker, rolling your eyes. Knowing that you should probably join the rest of them, you hop off the roof and fly back down. You scan the courtyard for Ashley and adjust your course when you do. The mischievous part of your brain decided to show off a little, so you nose dive, pulling up from the ground so that you were once again a meter off the ground. You fly in a straight line toward your friend, then cut off the thrust and retract your wings a few meters away from her, leaning forward to execute a forward roll across the floor. After making two revolutions, you stand up fully and skid to a halt, inches away from Ashley, who didn’t look the slightest bit impressed.

“Really? Nothing? That was so smooth you have to admit!” you extend your arms to either side.

“Well now that you’ve, ah, stretched your wings…” Ashley begins, completely ignoring your question, “you can give me a hand helping…” she pauses and gestures to the person stood in front of her. You hadn’t even noticed he was stood there.

“Call me Ren,” he says, placing his hand over his heart and bowing.

“Oh hey,” you reply. “Sorry if I interrupted, had to make sure the landing was done properly,” you stretch your arms in a slightly exaggerating way.

“You were clearly just showing off,” Ash says, making you give a guilty smile. The guy gives off a light chuckle.

“Well it was still impressive all the same,” he says, reaching a hand out. Both you and Ashley shake it, introducing yourselves. Ren has a pale complexion with long black scruffy hair, though there is a large pink streak on his left that off-sets it quite a bit. Though it matches his bright pink eyes that look equal parts intense and kind. He naturally seems to emit an air of calm around him.

“Thanks! I would have flown all the way from Vale but they wouldn’t let me,” you rub the back of your head. “So anyway, Ash is saying you need help?” you ask.

“Yes, I’ve lost my friend and was wondering if you’d seen her?” he says this with a straight face, as if this were normal behaviour for his friend.

“She has orange hair and has a pink skirt?” he continues. You and Ash look at each other, though she seems to be expecting something from you.

“What?”

“Well you’re the one who was just flying all over the place! You’re more likely to have seen her,” she raises her eyebrows at you.

“Oh right! Uhh, well I don’t think I saw her whilst up there, though I can go and look for her?” you say, pointing at your back as you release your wings. Ren looks like he’s about to respond, but then he looks behind you, and you hear a voice shout,  
“Hey that was you?!”

You turn in time to see a girl run up to you, as she begins to inspect your wings from every angle. You can barely keep track of her as she pulls on a wing to get a closer look, with a lot more strength than you were expecting.

“These are so cool!” she exclaims, releasing you and suddenly appearing inches from your face. “Do they have grenade launchers on them? Oh, what about lasers?” she’s so close that you can see the energy in her blue eyes. She seemed to smell a little of ozone in a weird way.

“No, they don’t, but now I wish they did,” you respond.

“Please don’t give him any ideas,” you hear Ash say next to you, as she places her hand over her face.

“Nora, where did you go?” Ren asks from behind her. “You just ran off”.

“Sorry Reeeen,” she runs to his side and hugs his arm, “I saw birdy boy here take off and I wanted to see where he was going,” she says in a tone so innocent that you can’t tell if she’s being serious.

“Birdy Boy?” you meekly say, with a large amount of giggling from Ashley.

“Well we should all probably get moving, don’t want to miss the introduction, do we?” Ren pipes up.

“Oh, you’re right!” Nora exclaims, before suddenly disappearing so quickly you almost miss the direction she runs in.  
“She’s an excitable one,” Ashley comments.

“You have no idea,” Ren sighs in exasperation, though with a slight smile on his face. “It was nice meeting you two,” he nods and makes off after his friend. You turn to Ash and grin.

“I like them”.

“Yeah, they have an interesting dynamic between them for sure,” she says. “Come on ‘Birdy Boy’, let’s go”.

“Shut up! I refuse to let that nickname stick!” you jab your finger at her, as you both walk away, ready for what this academy for warriors will have for you.


	2. "I Definitely Do"

As you catch the end of the train of other soon-to-be Huntsmen and Huntresses, you see that they are filing toward a large building that was tucked away to the left of the main collection of towers. It was a large circular structure, that you noticed didn’t have a roof when you got closer. You followed everyone through a set of enormous doors and join the crowd, that were gathered around a stage looking area at the front that was slightly raised higher up. Having a look around, you work out that you’re stood in some sort of amphitheatre, most likely used for combat training. The area that you’re all stood seems to be the main arena, with the circumference being lined with two levels of seating. You nudge Ashley and point up at the non-existent ceiling.

“It’s like they knew I’d be attending,” you grin. She rolls her eyes and you both make your way through the crowd to get a little closer to the stage. Once you are as close as you can get, without being too rude to those around you, two people appear on stage and walk up to the microphone that is placed there. One, you recognise as the woman who spoke through the hologram on the airship, Glynda Goodwitch, whom is stood behind someone who you haven’t seen before. He has grey hair, as if he was quite old but he looked a lot younger than that let on. He wore a pair of thin circular spectacles that he pushes up his nose as he begins to talk, keeping a cane by his side as he does.

“I’ll… make this brief,” he begins, with a very formal voice, that bore an aura of wisdom behind it. “You have travelled here today in search of knowledge. To hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy…”

“Ouch…” you mutter, frowning at his wording.

“Shh,” Ashley chastises you, stepping on your foot.

“… in need of purpose, direction,” the man continues. “You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step”. He finishes his speech and walks off to the side, where Glynda steps up to the microphone.

“You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow your initiation begins. Be ready. Also, can you all refrain from using any weapons or equipment you have brought with you until the test begins tomorrow,” she scans over the crowd as she says this, but you could swear she glares at you for a split second. “You are dismissed!” she says, and with that everyone begins to slowly file out of the arena.

“So, who was the first guy? He didn’t introduce himself?” you ask Ashley, who gives you her signature eye roll.

“That was the headmaster, Professor Ozpin! How don’t you know that?”

“Oh right! Well in my defence Ash, there weren’t any pictures when I was applying, so how was I supposed to know?” you shrug.

“How can you be both clever and a complete idiot?” she shakes her head, though clearly trying to hide a smirk.

“What can I say? I’m good at multitasking,” you stretch your arms out and attempt to crack your knuckles, but it doesn’t make a noise. Your friend giggles and tugs on your arm.

“Come on, let’s go to the ballroom and get some space before it’s all taken,” she gestures toward the door. “Lead on”. You blink in response.

“Uh, I was going to say for you to do that?” you say, scratching your head.

“What? How would I know the way there?” she frowns at you.

“You’re the one that knew the headmaster on sight, I figure you might have looked at a map somewhere too! How would I know where it is?”

“No, I haven’t, and you’re the one that flew over the entire academy!” Ashley motions her hands toward the sky, emphasising her point.

“Right cause the buildings had labels on the roof?” you fire back.

“Urgh whatever! Let’s just ask for directions then,” she suggests. You nod in agreement and look around for someone to ask. As you are, a girl storms past you, so you quickly reach out and tap her shoulder to gain her attention.

“Excuse me?” you ask.

“What?” she exclaims, spinning around and giving you one of the scariest glares you have ever seen. You retract you hand immediately and take a step back out of fear.

“Uhh… Sorry?” you meekly respond. You have the faintest feeling you might recognise this girl. She is wearing an all-white dress, with a rapier looking sword attached to her waist. Her hair is the same shade of white to yours, though hers is long and tied into a single ponytail that is off to her right side. She sighs and recomposes herself, taking a deep breath.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t need to be so rude, it’s just been a stressful first day for me,” she explains.

“Oh, how come?” you ask.

“Well, this ignorant girl didn’t know how to handle dust properly and almost killed me!”

“Ouch, well I promise not to try and not do that then,” you reach out your hand to her, “(Y/N) Luman, this here is my friend Ashley Ghost,” you say.

“Hello, I am Weiss, a pleasure to meet you,” she replies, shaking your hand and then your friend’s.

“Of course, we both know who you are, obviously,” Ashley nods her head to her slightly.

“We do?” You frown at her, where she steps on your toe, keeping up the smile on her face. “(Y/N), clearly this is miss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company”.

“Oh! Of course, I thought I recognised you, sorry about that,” you bow your head to her. Weiss nods, feeling content that someone was familiar with who she is for once.

“Much appreciated, so what did you need me for?” she asks you.

“Right, well we know that we need to head to the ballroom but we have no clue where that is, can you give us a hand?”

“Why didn’t you study the map we were sent before we came here?”  Weiss frowns, producing exactly that from a bag. Ashley shoulders you as if to say ‘I told you so’.

“Hey! I don’t see _you_ carrying a map either!” you whisper. Looking at your silent argument, Weiss rolls her eyes and brings out her scroll.

“Here, I’ll send you a copy,” she says, beginning to tap away on it. Before you can reply, your friend has already brought out hers.

“Thank you very much Miss Schnee,” Ashley says gratefully.

“So where are you two from anyway?” Weiss inquires, her scroll making a quick ‘boop’ as she sends the map over.

“We’re actually from Atlas too,” you answer. “We both studied at the same training academy together”.

Weiss smiles in response to hearing this. “That’s wonderful! Glad to hear there are more students from Atlas here. How long have you two known each other then?” Both you and Ashley look at each other for a second, as if trying to telepathically work it out together.

“Around seven years, right?” you reply, checking with your friend.

“About that yeah, though I was originally from Vale though,” she confirms. “Despite the klutz he can appear to be, (Y/N) and I are a great team”.

“I built your arm, my weapons and my wings, how can I possibly be a klutz?” you complain.

“It’s a question I’m always asking myself too, don’t worry,” Ash pats your arm, teasing you. Weiss smiles at the back-and-forth nature of your conversations.

“Well, I’m glad I could help, I’ll see you two another time perhaps?”

“It would be a pleasure miss Schnee, thanks again!” Ashley bows her head to her.

“Please, call me Weiss. Goodbye guys!” she says, before making her way out of the arena. You give her a two-finger salute and turn to your friend, giving her a sideways grin.

“What is _that_ look for?” she asks.

You raise an eyebrow at her. “Oh, nothing. I’ve just never seen you so formal before,” you say in a teasing voice.

“She’s a Schnee, I had to be!” she argues.

“Uh huh?” you nod slowly, not convinced at all, especially considering the blush she seems to be hiding. Ashley just shakes her head in response, opening up her scroll.

“Let’s just get to the ballroom already,” she’s barely finished the sentence before she’s marching off.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luckily the ballroom wasn’t too packed when you got there, and you managed to find spaces to place your roll matts and sleeping bags just fine. Scanning the room, you noticed that there was such a large variety of diverse people, each clearly from a different background and with no two people having similar styles at all. There was also open mingling for everyone, with people all sleeping either with groups of friends, by themselves or with new people they had met. Some people had got changed into their pyjama’s, though there didn’t seem to be a clear place to switch clothes. You shrug, unclipping your backpack and slipping off the weapons on your wrists, but left your watch on your left hand. You place them next to your roll matt, then remove your white waistcoat and black t-shirt, folding them and putting them in the same area as the rest. Once you are done, you turn to see Ashley walking up to you. Somehow, she’s completely changed out of her normal clothes and is wearing a t-shirt and pyjama bottoms.

“There _was_ a place to change wasn’t there?” you sigh. Ashley gives you a fake look of sympathy and nods her head. You shrug and you both lay down, with you laying over your sleeping bag and your friend climbing into hers. You roll onto your side to face her, propping you head up with your arm.

“Isn’t this so cool?” you ask her, whispering in an excited voice.

“Well, it’s certainly different from the bunkbeds we had back in Atlas, and the fact we’re not in separate rooms for gender,” she replies.

“Are you saying you don’t approve?” you raise your eyebrows and poke her shoulder. “I know I do,” you say, realising that both you and the person behind you had said the exact same thing. You roll over to see who it was, and you’re met with a tall girl in an orange tank top and long golden yellow hair. She looks straight to your bare chest, before gazing up and directly at you.

“Yup, I definitely do,” she says, giving you a wink. You look down at your own body. Though you’re reluctant to admit it, you were quite well built, but not something to gawk over in your eyes.

“Well, thanks I guess?” you respond. The girl chuckles, clearly enjoying the fact you were moderately flustered by her comment. She holds out her fist to you.

“Yang Xao Long, nice to meet ya!” she introduces herself, and you return the fist bump.

“(Y/N) Luman, charmed,” you say back.

“I mean of course you are,” Yang flicks her hair, giving off a cocky smile.

“Oh my word, she’s literally you in female form,” you hear Ashley mutter behind you. Sitting up, you gesture to her for Yang.

“Where are my manners? This is my friend Ashley Ghost”. She waves to Yang, with her getting a two-finger salute back from the blonde.

“Sup?”

“Hi. Please tell me you can’t fly too? I can only babysit one bird,” Ashley jerks a thumb in your direction.

“Stop with the bird stuff, it really makes it seem way less cool than it actually is,” you complain.

“Oh! Were you the one flying around earlier?” Yang asks you, completely forgetting about Ash’s question.

“I was yeah,” you answer, giving off your signature grin. In response, Yang immediately rolls over and taps the girl’s shoulder next to her.

“Ruby, you’ll want to meet this guy,” she says to her, you can’t really see her much, but she’s lying on her stomach and scribbling something.

“Yang! I told you that I’m writing a letter to Signal right now, and I don’t need to make friends!” she complained.

“Oh really? Ah well I just figured you’d want to meet the person who had the wings you were drooling over earlier,” Yang says sarcastically, giving a nonchalant shrug. She had barely finished the sentence when the girl, Ruby, was clambering over her to see, pushing Yang over by her face.

“Who is it?!” she asks, almost shouting. You keep a straight face and point at yourself. She climbs over and sits cross legged in front of you, staring at you in delight with startling silver eyes.

“You flying around earlier was so cool! Like when you did the dive, the weaving in and out of the arches and… well all of it was awesome!” she barely breathes when saying this. You’re almost scared of how excited she is, you’d never seen anyone this interested by your wings before.

“Wow… well thanks, uh, Ruby, is it?” you ask, getting a quick nod in response.

“Sorry, I’m just really fascinated with weapons you know? Like everyone has different ones so it’s fun to see what everyone has!” she explains, with Yang giving a weird smile from behind her, which looks to be pride.

“That’s no problem at all, it’s refreshing to see someone as excited as you are for once,” you say, giving Ashley a fake judgemental sideways glance. She simply rolls her eyes, but she is clearly amused by Ruby’s reaction too, as she is smiling herself too. You turn back to the girl. She’s a lot smaller than most people you have met so far, with relatively short black hair that has red highlights at the ends.

“If we’re being honest, it’s only really half of my get up”.

“Oh really? What else do you have?” Ruby asks, though you tap your nose in response.

“Not going to tell you yet, maybe you’ll see it tomorrow though”. She looks slightly disappointed that you didn’t say, but quickly regains her original mood, looking over to Ashley to gawk once again.

“Is that a robot arm?” she asks, shifting over to her to get a closer look. Your friend suddenly looks quite flustered that she is the centre of attention now, but shakes it off and presents her arm for her. Ruby leans in, inspecting it all in detail, whilst asking loads of questions to her about it like “how much can you lift with it?” and “are you good at arm wrestling?”

“This is the most uncomfortable I’ve seen Ash in a long time,” you lean over to Yang and say. She gives a slight chuckle.

“So, are you two a couple?” she asks you bluntly, raising an eyebrow. You smile and roll your eyes. It’s a question the two of you have been asked quite a few times.

“No, we’re not, and I’m going to guess you and Ruby here are sisters?” you ask back.

“Yup, though technically half-sisters, how’d you guess?”

“I’m smart like that”. You look back to Ruby, who is now trying to persuade your friend to show her the weapon functions. Before you can intervene, Yang does for you.

“You want to blow up the school again Ruby?” she says, clearly teasing her sister for something.

“That wasn’t my fault!” she huffs, crossing her arms. “In fact, it’s more likely his fault, for distracting me,” she points at you. You are about to ask her what the heck she is talking about, but you remember what you saw on the top of the school.

“Wait… was that you who caused the explosion in the courtyard?” you also recall what Weiss told you earlier about some girl being ignorant with dust and ‘almost killing her’. Ruby looks dead embarrassed, but then seems to notice something behind Yang.

“That girl…” she mutters. Yang follows her gaze.

“Do you know her?” she asks.

“She was there at the courtyard when I exploded,” she explains. You also see where she is looking. She’s looking at a girl who is sat against the wall, reading a book in the light of a candle next to her. Yang grabs her sister’s wrist and begins to hoist her up.

“Well, let’s go over and say hello then!” she says eagerly.

“Wait what?!” Ruby exclaims, as she is dragged across the room by Yang, frantically complaining as she does.

“Um… Bye then?” you meekly say, giving a small wave, but they are gone doing their own thing.

“I did not think that there could be anyone more impulsive than you,” Ashley points out.

“Which one are you talking about?”

Looking over to the two sisters, Ash thinks, then shrugs. “Both of them to be honest”. She lies back down and tucks herself into her sleeping bag, removing her arm and placing it beside her.

“We should get some rest, need to be ready for that initiation tomorrow”. You nod in response, also getting into your own sleeping bag and laying down to rest. Resting your eyes, you smile at the day you’ve had. Beacon has already turned out to be pretty cool so far, and it’s barely been one day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's chapter 2! Hope you liked it. I'm really enjoying writing it :D Comments are appreciated as usual, see you next chapter!


	3. "The Girl with the Spear and Shield Symbol"

Upon waking up, you overhear some of the other students talking about breakfast. You ask for directions then you both begin to collect your things, each heading to the changing room after. You’re wearing your usual clothes of light grey jeans and a black t-shirt with a sleeveless white waistcoat. Everyone back at Atlas would always ask you how you weren’t cold all the time. You would always shrug and say that flying around in the cold air had climatized you, you assume.

Leaving the room, quickly stopping to fix your combover white hair, you notice that Ashley is ready to go too. She is also wearing her usual attire, which consists of jeans and a tank top with a leather jacket over it, all of which was black. Many people liked to joke about how different your styles were.

Upon reaching the mess hall, the two of you grab some food and take a seat at one of the tables. The building you’re in is separate from the rest of the main structure of the academy, much like the arena, but this is simply, as the name says, a large hall. It’s filled with four rows of tables, with many more going the length of the room. Down the longer walls, were various windows that went up to the ceiling, giving a few of Beacon through one side and one of the many forests through the other. Fitting the style of the rest of the area, the inside also had many columns and pillars throughout. The hall was practically filled with students, all once again sat in their groups.

Looking around, you could see some of the people you had already met. Ruby and Yang were on one table, with Ruby drinking a large amount of milk as the two of them conversed. Weiss was sat on her own, though she looked like she was trying to keep composed amongst the loud conversations. Near the edge of the room, you noticed that girl Ruby and Yang went to talk to last night. She was once again reading a book, eyes glued to it as she simultaneously ate her food. Close to her was Ren, who was clearly trying to focus on his food whilst an overexcited Nora chatted away around him. She seemed to be eating an inhuman number of pancakes. You couldn’t help but smile at the scene before you.

Both you and Ashley mostly ate your food in silence, occasionally piping up to chat about your excitement for training and the people you’ve met. It wasn’t long before everyone started to slowly file out, noticing that the time for initiation was drawing near. Eventually you joined them, making your way to the locker room around the back of the arena. There everyone was suiting up and checking their equipment and weaponry, with some practicing a few basic moves in some of the larger spaces. Many people seemed to be taking out their stuff from the lockers.

“Wait, were we supposed to put our stuff away when we got here?” you ask Ashley, who much like always rolls her eyes and continues on. As you were walking up to your designated lockers, you see Weiss conversing with another individual. You recognise her instantly, the red hair, matching brass circlet, torso and leg pieces and the shield and spear symbol on her hip. Your eyes widen in excitement.

“Ash!” you exclaim, furiously tapping your friend’s shoulder.

“Ow! What?” she asks, trying to follow your gaze. You gesture at who you’re looking at, but your words escape you. Of course, Ashley gets the wrong idea. “(Y/N), you’re not explaining anything, please tell me you’re not acting like this because you’ve seen a pretty girl?” she teases you. You give her a shocked look in response.

“Wait, you’re saying you don’t know who that is?”

“Should I?”

You give out a small laugh at how backwards this is. “Come on, let’s go over!” You lead your friend over and join Weiss and the girl. The heiress stops mid-sentence and turns to you two.

“Oh, hello you two, actually good timing I wanted to ask you this as well,” she says, smiling.

“What’s that then?” Ashley asks her. Before Weiss can answer, you hold out a finger to silence everyone.

“Wait a sec, before all that,” you turn to the other girl in the group, “You’re Pyrrha Nikos, right?”

She gives a humble smile and nods. “I am, yes”. You reach out a hand and shake hers.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you! I’ve seen some of your televised fights when you were in Sanctum, you’re such an incredible fighter!” you ramble, realising that you’ve been shaking her hand a little long. Pyrrha doesn’t seem bothered by that at all though.

“Thank you very much, I’m sure you yourself are also a capable fighter, I’m guessing you were the one flying around yesterday?” she says, leaning to the side slightly and looking at your backpack.

“Haha, yeah that was me,” you scratch the back of your head, feeling your face blush a little. Ashley suppresses a giggle at the state you’re in, then turns back to Weiss.

“So, you were saying?”

“Right, well I was just talking to Pyrrha about the assignment of teams, and was asking her if she wanted to team-up. I also figured you two might want to join us too?”

Pyrrha quickly interjects. “Well, I personally want to just see where the chips fall. However, I wouldn’t be opposed to whomever I end up with, and being with you seems grand”. Upon finishing the sentence, Weiss doesn’t react, instead smiling, though with a clear faraway look in her eye that shows she is thinking about something. It isn’t long before she’s brought back to Remnant however, as someone new jumps into the conversation.

“You know what else is great? Me Jaune Arc, nice to meet ya,” he says in an attempted suave voice. You had to double check it was Jaune, as he was acting nothing like the dorky vomit boy you remember from the ship. He has slid past you and Ashley and is leaning against the locker between Pyrrha and Weiss.

“You again?” Weiss sighs.

“Nice to meet you Jaune,” Pyrrha waves, leaning round to do so. Though he quickly sidesteps in front of her to talk to Weiss. This doesn’t seem to bother her though, in fact she seems oddly amused by the boy she’s just met.

“Yeah yeah, so Weiss, I couldn’t help overhear your fondness for me the other day,” he begins. You look over to her and raise your eyebrows, though she clearly doesn’t know what is going on either.

“Oh you have got to be kidding me…” she breathes out heavily.

“Don’t worry, no need to be embarrassed. So, I’ve been hearing rumours about teams, I was thinking me and you would make a good one, what do you say?”

Despite how cringe worthy this was to watch, you couldn’t help but admire his confidence.

“Actually, I think the teams are comprised of four students each, so-” Pyrrha begins to explain, but is quickly cut off by Jaune.

“You don’t say?” he says, quickly sidestepping over to the redhead. Unlike Weiss, Pyrrha doesn’t try to back away, instead resting her hands in front of her and happily listening to the blonde’s attempt at chat up. “Well, hot stuff, play your cards right and maybe you could join up with the winning team,” he continues. Weiss quickly runs between them.

“Jaune, is it? Do you have any idea who you are talking to?”

“Not in the slightest, Snow Angel”. You can’t help at snicker at the nickname, with even Ashley trying to suppress a giggle.

“This is Pyrrha,” Weiss starts, gesturing behind her.

“Hello again!”

“Pyrrha graduated top of her class at Sanctum”.

“Never heard of it,” Jaune shrugs.

“Ah! She’s won the Mistral Regional Tournament four years in a row! A new record!”

“The what now?”

Even you are surprised that he doesn’t know what that is. You’ve watched those fights many times in awe. Once again though, despite him not knowing anything about her, Pyrrha isn’t offended in the slightest, in fact she seems happier the more he claims to not know. The latter cannot be said for Weiss though, who is flailing her arms in frustration.

“She’s on the front of every Pumpkin Pete’s Marshmallow Flakes box!” she outbursts. Apparently, she was now talking Jaune’s language, as he gasps in amazement.

“That’s you? They only do that for star athletes and cartoon characters!”

“Yeah, it was pretty cool. Sadly, the cereal isn’t very good for you,” Pyrrha replies in a humble voice. Her modesty seems to come so naturally you can’t help but admire her more.

“So, after hearing all this, do you really think you’re in a position to ask her to be on your team?” Weiss asks him. You wince slightly, as the question is a little harsh.

“I guess not… sorry,” Jaune lowers his head. You’re about to step forward, but Pyrrha is already there, resting a hand on his shoulder.

“Actually Jaune, I think you’d make a great leader,” she says softly.

“Oh, stop it!” he immediately perks up.

“Hey, I agree too,” you give him an encouraging nod.

“Seriously, please stop it. This kind of behaviour should not be encouraged!” Weiss interjects.

“Sounds like Pyrrha’s on board for team Jaune. Spots are filling up quick. Now I’m not supposed to do this, but maybe I can pull some strings. Find a place for you. What do you say?” Jaune leans down to Weiss’ height, with her pulling back.

“Alright, that’s a bit close! Pyrrha, a little help please?” she asks. Jaune turns in time to see a fully extended spear pierce his hood and carry him back into a nearby wall. You wince at the poor guy, both because of his attempt at flattery and because that looked like it hurt a little.

“I’m sorry!” Pyrrha exclaims in what appears to be a genuine voice. Suddenly a formal voice is heard around the room, emanating from various speakers on the walls.

“Would all first-year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation?” says the voice, clearly belonging to Glynda Goodwitch. “Again, all first-year students to Beacon Cliff immediately”.

Eyes still looking at one of the speakers, you lean slightly to Ashley.

“Do you think we’ll be falling if the cliff is involved?” you ask hopefully.

“Having heard about Professor Ozpin’s teaching methods in the past, it’s possible,” your friend responds. Even more excited than before, you double check your gear and Ash’s arm, making sure it’s all working. After finishing you make your way to the exit, as you see Ruby and Yang help out the only now embarrassed Jaune.

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now that you were at the cliff, you had become the most excited person there. Except maybe for Nora, but she always seemed to be insanely hyperactive. You and the other students were stood at the edge of the cliff that overlooked the Emerald forest, which you recalled the name from the map on your scroll when you were looking at it yesterday. The name described it very well, though ‘forest’ may have been underselling it, as the wooded area was enormous. The trees were spread as far as the eye could see, and were so densely packed together that it was impossible to see the ground. In the distance, you could see there were several large hills and cliff faces further on, which went on until it hit the mountain range even further out. However, the height wasn’t what had you the giddiest for once. Every student was currently stood on their own square platform, each bearing the Vale insignia on it. All of you were in a line going horizontally, facing off the cliff, and were between Ashley on your left, and Yang on your right. The best part was you recognised that these were launch pads. You were all to be thrown off the cliff. You were too busy admiring where you were stood that you almost didn’t notice Ozpin and Glynda had made their way in front of everyone.

“For years you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest,” Ozpin begins, with Glynda continuing.

“Now, I’m sure many of you have heard rumours about the assignment of teams. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates… today,” she says, pausing a moment to let it sink in.

“Sweet,” you mutter to yourself.

“These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon, so it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well”. Both you and Ash nod to each other in response to the headmaster saying this.

“That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years,” he finishes. Immediately your mind is thinking of strategies, formulating the best plan to locating Ash quickly.

“After you’ve partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest,” Ozpin continues, ignoring some complaints from people like Ruby. “You will meet opposition along the way, do not hesitate to destroy everything in you path, or you will die. You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene,” he gives Glynda a small side glance. “You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one, and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?”

Jaune is the only one to respond to this, raising his hand and asking in a meek voice, “Yeah, um, sir-”

“Good! Now, take your positions”.

You once again feel a bit bad for Jaune, but everyone else is preparing their stance, with everyone bracing themselves in some way. Whereas you simply put your hands behind your head. You have no plan in falling. Looking to your left you see that the pads have started hurling people off the cliff one by one. Eventually it gets to Ashley and she turns to you.

“See you in a bit, smokey,” you wink at her. Before she can respond, she too is launched away. Once again wearing the biggest grin, you yourself are thrown up too.

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For a second or two, you simply enjoy the air, as you fly headfirst toward the forest. Once you start to descend though, you instantly execute a forward flip and engage your wings, stopping mid-air. Hovering in place, you immediately scan the surroundings. You can see various students doing their own landings. Ranging from people like Ruby and Ren who use their weapons to swing off trees, to Weiss who has summoned glyphs to use as platforms to make her decent. Below you also see a yellow blur whizz past, which you quickly realise is Yang, who is propelling herself across the top of the trees using her wrists somehow.

“Weaponised gauntlets probably,” you mutter to yourself, chuckling at her yells as she ‘flies’. You quickly go back to scanning the area however, as you are looking for something in particular. After a small amount of looking, you see a student in the distance, who as soon as they’re about to hit the treeline, turn into a cloud of smoke and fly right through the branches and disappear below.

“That’s my girl!” you exclaim at the sight of Ashley’s semblance. You taught her that specific move a year ago, during a training session that involved you dropping her as a surprise on the enemy. Being able to turn into a smoke cloud has made her even more formidable, coupled with the fact that her robotic arm also transforms with her. Having located your friend, you lean down and begin to descend toward where she landed. Having an aerial advantage has major perks. You’re about halfway to her when you hear a faint screaming behind you. You react all too late, as you turn in time for a blur to clip a wing and send you hurtling out of control.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading this next chapter! The next one is going to be a long one so that'll make some people happy. If you would like to comment please do, they're awesome to see! I'll see you next chapter! :D


	4. The Bird and the Snake

It isn’t until you’ve stabilised a little bit that you realise what hit you was Jaune, who clearly didn’t have his own landing strategy. His impact wasn’t enough to stop him, but it was enough to clip your wing and send you spinning. You try to fully re-engage the thrusters, but the left wing is too badly damaged. Compensating the best you can, you glide your way toward where you were sure you saw Ashley land. The hit had completely thrown you off, and where you were going was now guesswork. As you approached the tree line you made an ‘X’ with your hands, and your wings folded in front of your face, shielding you from the branches and twigs. Once you made it through the underbrush, you re-extended them, which slowed your decent enough to not be dangerous.

As soon as your feet made contact with the floor, you executed a forward roll, retracting the wings as you do. Immediately after finishing in a kneeling position, you lift your arms and activate the two weapons on each wrist. From the gauntlets, two twelve-inch gun barrels extend out, and you point them forward. You scan the immediate area, rotating a full 360 degrees and taking everything in. First thing you notice is that there is no Grimm. ‘Good,’ you think to yourself, ‘means I can focus on running diagnostics on my wings’. The second thing you note is that Ashley is no-where in sight, which means you had landed in the wrong area. Since that can’t be helped right now, you decide to prioritise repairs.

Unclipping your pack, you place it on the ground then press a button on your wrist. The wings extend fully on the floor, laid out for you to check. There didn’t seem to be any visible damage, except for one out of place moving part on the left wing. That meant any damage was internal, which you found as a relief, as it would be far easier to fix. You decide here isn’t a good place to do that though, as there are too many places that you could be ambushed from. Shouldering your wings back on and using one of your watches many functions, you locate north and begin wandering through the Emerald Forest.

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You were hating this. This whole thing would have been far easier if your plan had gone right. Now you were stuck walking. It would be a little better if _something_ came and attacked you, at least you wouldn’t be bored. Or stuck talking to yourself. You had tried to keep optimistic that you had somehow managed to land near Ashley, but so far to no avail.

As much as you wouldn’t admit it in person, you really were hoping to be on the same team as her. You’ve both been friends for so long and you’d hate to not be around her as much for the next four years. That and you were sort of worried about how she would maintain her arm without you there to help fix it.

Despite both of you being almost polar opposites in clothing, fighting style and personalities, you had really struck it off when you met all those years ago. You were first introduced to each other on your first day in the training academy in Atlas. She had recently moved from Vale, having been adopted by a new family. Even then she didn’t have that arm, and you almost made an idiot of yourself when you went to fist bump her for the first time.

It wasn’t for a long while when she trusted you enough to tell you the story behind it. When she was nine her village was attacked by Grimm. Her mother and father were part of a group attempting to fight them off, and in the midst of the confusion, one got to Ashley and bit off her arm. She immediately passed out from shock, and when she came to she was in a hospital and was told that her parents were dead. The only time you had seen her cry was when she told that story.

When she started training her prosthetic arm wasn’t very high tech, mostly being just a minor extension that could help with basic tasks. Though this didn’t stop her from trying to learn to fight. However, as soon as you became friends with her you made it your goal to make her a better one. It took a little longer than you thought, even with your natural talent for engineering.

When you presented it to her it was the happiest you had ever seen her. You were the first person you had ever seen her hug. After that her mood shifted, she was even more driven to fight, but was much more positive. She was chattier, less inward and the two of you became much closer as a result. You were both inseparable, always hanging out together, always training together and now going to the same Huntsman and Huntress Academy. You would be shattered if you two were separated now.

With that thought in mind, you picked up your pace. It’s not long before you find a small clearing, though despite the more open area, there are still treetops above you blocking the view to the sky. Still, this was a much safer place to attempt repairs. Before you can even remove your pack however, you hear a twig snap from nearby. You instantly train your attention to the noise, pointing both your guns toward the edge of the clearing. From behind a tree, a Beowolf emerges, slowly skulking its way over. It doesn’t make any threatening moves, simply growling quietly from a distance, eyeing you up.

“I almost feel sorry for you,” you say to it, “hardly seems like a fair fight”. Upon finishing this, three more approach from behind it, prowling in on all fours to line up with the first.

“This is more like it,” you smile. “Which one of you pretty boys want to dance first then?” cocking your head to the side, you wink at them. You know that they’re not intelligent enough to understand what you’re saying, but you can’t help but do it.

Despite this however, one of the Beowolves charges toward you, howling a battle cry. Holding your ground, you place your left foot behind you and brace yourself. The Grimm was now close enough that it reels an arm back to claw at you, but before it’s hit connects you extend your wings and cross them in front of you, catching the attack. The thrusters were damaged but you could still use them. Pushing forward you use the surprise of being behind the wings to open fire from your wrists, peppering the creature with bullets. It covers its face in pain and reels back, and you take the opportunity to counter attack. You twist your wrists, and the barrels of the gun extend a little and turn into a sharp three-sided point. They detach and you catch the newly formed daggers. You use what little boost the wings have to propel yourself forward, stabbing the Beowolf in the chest and felling the beast. It dissolves into dark, as the rest of its kind does after death, and you look to the remaining three.

“What’re you three standing around for then?” you twirl your dagger around your hands. Before either side can make a move however, both you and the Grimm are distracted. To the side of one of the creatures, a large swirling orange mass has appeared. They’re all taken aback by it, as it has just materialised from nothing. Suddenly, something extends through it at lightning speeds and wraps around one of the Beowolf’s neck. It seems to be some sort of metallic tentacle of sorts. As quickly as it emerged, it pulls the Grimm through it and both it and the portal disappears. The remaining two look at you with a face that seems to say, ‘how did you do that?’

“Uh… I mean, what’re you _two_ standing around for?” you scratch your head, dagger still in hand. Both the Grimm seemed to have had enough of standing around, so they both lumber toward you. Meeting their challenge, you also charge toward them, daggers at each side. Once you are close, you jump off the ground and flip over the first one. Whilst in the air you pivot your body so that you’re facing it when you land. Knowing that the second is close behind, you extend your wings flat against your back, creating a shield to block it. Once its paws make contact, you use the momentum to propel forward and impale the first Beowolf from behind with your daggers. It immediately starts to dissolve before it has even worked out where you were. Not taking a second to admire your handiwork, you turn to face the last one, who has already started to go for another swipe. You step forward and lift your right wing to block it, forcing the attack up as you slide under and embed the dagger in your left hand into its chin. With a final squeal, it also dissolves into nothing. You reattach your weapons to your wrists and retract the wings, brushing yourself off. You’re about to congratulate yourself, but you feel a presence behind you. Turning, it’s all too late as you see another Beowolf has appeared and is leaping right at you. You instinctively raise your arms to block, though as you do the Grimm completely disappears from view, obscured by another swirling orange portal. After a second or two, it dematerialises, revealing behind it no more Beowolf. Instead you are met with a girl, who has her hands on her waist and is giving you an unimpressed smirk. You don’t realise that you’re just staring at her until she breaks the silence.

“You’re welcome!” she prompts, bowing in an exaggerated way.

“Right, thank you, mystery woman, just sort of caught off-guard by the….” You imitate the noise the portal made, whilst waving your arms about. She raises an eyebrow, clearly thinking ‘wow… I just saved this weirdo’. If you were being honest with yourself though, the portals weren’t at all what had you like this. It was obvious now that this was clearly her semblance, however it worked. What you were still processing was that this was the first person you had laid eyes on in the exercise. She was now the first member of the team you would be part of for your four years at this academy.

“That was my semblance,” she confirms, “I call it Gateway, but that’s not important right now, if you recall we have an objective?” she says coyly.

“Oh really? And here I thought we were just having a leisurely stroll,” you sighed sarcastically. You still hadn’t been properly introduced, but the way she talked to you was entertaining. She chuckles at your comment.

“If only that were the case…” she leaves a pause after, gesturing for your name.

“(Y/N) Luman,” you give her a two-finger salute, “and you would be?”

“Ninia Topaz,” she gives you a wink, and you notice her eyes. They are a glistening amber, as well as not looking human in the slightest, in fact more resembling a snake. Part of you couldn’t help but admire them. “Shall we get moving then?” she turns and gestures north into the forest. “I’d imagine our encounter here might attract more Grimm to our location,” she points out. You almost don’t hear her say that though, as you have seen that behind her she has a long scaly tail that’s bright yellow in colour. She’s a Faunus.

“Problem?” she asks, raising her eyebrows.

“Not at all,” you smile, following her. You had never met a Faunus before, mostly due to them not usually living in Atlas, so you were mildly fascinated by her. Upon catching up to her, the two of you walk side by side.

“So,” you begin, “how do these gates work?” you ask her. She gives you a slightly confused look.

“I’ll be honest, that isn’t the first question I figured you’d ask,” she says.

“What were you expecting?”

“Well, goofy guy like you, I figure you’d ask about the Faunus thing,” she points at her eyes.

“I might have, but I didn’t want to sound rude, and to be fair the portal thing is super cool!”

She smiles slightly at the compliment. “Thanks, I guess. Well I can make two connecting gates that I can use to travel to places,” she explains.

“Wow, that sounds pretty neat, so you can just do this anywhere?”

She shakes her head in response. “Not quite. I’ve found that they have to be connected to the ground, and the further away I try and go, the more strain on me when I use it”.

“Still, that’s an awesome semblance, I bet that makes you such a skilled opponent”. Ninia gives an honest shrug.

“I can be I guess. What about you?”

“As in what’s my semblance?” you clarify, to which she nods.

“No clue, hasn’t emerged yet, I’ve been told it should sometime soon though”. This was a slight sore point to you. You didn’t let it get to you, but sometimes it did bother you a little that you still didn’t have a semblance. Everyone back at Atlas had theirs emerge before you all moved on, except you. You compensated for it with your wings though, using them as an extra extension of you combat abilities much like someone with their semblance would.

“I’m guessing that’s why you have these then?” As if reading your mind, Ninia points at your pack.

“No, I made them years ago because they’re cool! That and I love flying,” you cross your arms and give an intentionally cocky smile.

“Yeah, you looked super cool when you crashed earlier,” she snickers.

“Oh ha ha, that wasn’t my fault! In fact, we should find someplace to stop soon so that I can make repairs on them actually”.

“You can do that out here?” she asks, you can’t tell if she thinks you’re crazy or is impressed that you could.

“I’d be a pretty terrible Huntsman in training if I wasn’t prepared for equipment failure,” you point out.

“That’s a fair point,” Ninia concedes, “well then, how about we find another open area, so that I can cover you as you do?” she turns to you, though you aren’t focused on her.

“How about here?” you ask, pointing to a clearing you’ve just reached. On the far end of it, you can see that there’s a small stone ruin, consisting of a semi-circle of pillars. There’s clearly something on a collection of plinths near the centre.

“Oh. Yeah that works,” Ninia says with a surprised look on her face. The both of you walk over to it, silently keeping a careful eye out for anything. The two of you had similar thoughts that this seemed a little too easy considering. Once you reached the dais, you could see more clearly that each stand had a chess piece on it, either black or white or of various types.

“I’m assuming these are the relics that Ozpin was telling us about,” you state, picking up a white bishop piece.

“I guess so,” she replies, looking at it in your hand. She’s about to say something else, but she’s interrupted by a voice from behind the both of you.

“Helloooooo!” a girl says, whom you turn around to be met with Yang.

“Fancy seeing you here,” you say, noticing that she’s with that Blake girl you remembered seeing earlier at breakfast.

“I know, right? Here I was thinking that we’d be the first,” Yang says, walking over to examine the pieces herself.

“Neither were we, there’s some missing so I assume others got their piece and moved on”.

“Hmm…” Yang thinks out loud, before picking up a piece and lift it aloft. “How about a cute little pony?”

“Fine,” Blake answers, giving a little smile of amusement. The calm air is immediately shattered, as a high-pitched scream can be heard over the trees.

“Oh no! Some girl’s in trouble!” Yang exclaims, all four of you now looking in the direction of the cry.

“They’re too far away for us to be any help,” you point out, kneeling down and taking your pack off, extending your wings on the floor. “Would you ladies be so kind as to watch my back for a second as I fix this?” you ask, exaggerating a chivalrous tone. All three of them nod as you begin to work. You pull out a couple tools from a pocket on your belt, exposing some of the inner circuitry and mechanics to tinker away. Your minutes into your repairs when you hear a loud screech from above you. Everyone looks up to see a Nevermore flying overhead. Usually this would be cause for panic, as these large Grimm are incredibly tough to deal with. But looking closer you notice that something has fallen from it. As it drops closer, you notice that distinctive red hood. It’s Ruby! Before anyone can worry about her falling to her death however, something else flies across the sky and hits her directly, changing her course and sending her into a tree.

“Did your sister just fall from the sky?” Blake asks Yang, who is scratching her head in confusion.

“Wasn’t that Jaune that hit her too?” you comment. Nearby a loud explosion can be heard, and an Ursa emerges from the woods. It stumbles forward a little, before another ‘BOOM’ can be seen behind it in a cloud of pink, as it topples to the ground. From its back, Nora rolls off and stands up, pouting at the fallen beast.

“Aww… It’s broken…” she complains, jumping on its back to inspect it.

“Nora… Please don’t do that again,” says a panting Ren, who has walked into view. He is immediately confused though, as Nora has disappeared. You look to your side to see she is now suddenly at a plinth, inspecting one of the chess pieces. She plucks a rook piece and balances it on her head.

“I’m queen of the castle! I’m queen of the castle!” she chants.

“Nora!” Ren shouts, to which Nora giggles and removes the piece from her head.

“Coming Reeeen!” she salutes, running back to her friend.

“Did she ride here, on an Ursa?” Blake calmly questions.

“I…” Yang simply says, who is also unable to process what is happening, much like you. From a distant end of the clearing, opposite to the ruin, a dozen trees are knocked down, and from its wake you see a Deathstalker scuttling through. It appears to chasing down Pyrrha Nikos!

“Has that girl run all the way here with a Deathstalker on her tail?” Blake asks again, this time a little more agitated. Yang looks like she’s about to explode, but before she can talk, you hear a hiss coming from a nearby. Looking for the source, you see a King Taijitu slither from another section of trees, with one of its heads dead behind it. On its living one, a boy you don’t recognise is clinging to it. He brings up a weapon, what seems to be a small combat axe and he hacks at its head. The creature throws him off, and he lands hard on the ground.

“I got this!” A familiar voice yells, as you see Ashley runs around from behind it. The Grimm rears its head up and begins to try and strike the fallen boy, but as it gets meters away from him, your friend sprints in between them and punches the head downward will full force of her metal arm. The impact sends the head into the ground, being imbedded into the floor.

“She just one punch killed a head of a King Taijitu,” Blake points out.

“Argh! I can’t take it anymore! Can everyone just chill for five seconds before something crazy happens again!?” Yang explodes, literal flames bursting from her hair as her eyes change to a fiery red. Everyone says nothing, simply watching the various scenes unfold.

“Ok, I’m going to go back to this now,” you say after a little silence. It doesn’t take you much longer to rectify the damage, and you run a quick test of all functions to make sure everything is back to normal. You shoulder the pack again, just in time to see everyone looking up. Following their gaze, you see that they’re looking at the Nevermore. Whom Weiss is holding onto one of its talons.

“I told her to jump,” Ruby says, who has now appeared next to the group.

“She’s going to fall,” Blake points out.

“She’ll be fine,” Ruby reassures, but as she says it you can see she has begun to plummet.

“She’s falling,” says Ren calmly, not showing any worry at all.

“Ok, my wings are fixed, I can fly up and catch her then-” before you can finish you see Jaune jump from a nearby tree and catch her out of the air. However, he quickly realises that this hasn’t helped at all, and the both of them hit the floor. Weiss appears to have come out better, as she has landed on the poor boy. Suddenly a loud impact is heard, and Pyrrha flies over to them, skidding across the floor. As she does Ashley and the person she is with walks over to the group.

“Great, the gang’s all here, now we can die together!” Yang cheerfully comments.

“Not if I can help it,” Ruby dashes away at immense speed right toward the Deathstalker. As she does you run over to Ashley.

“Hey you! Glad to see you made it,” you say to her.

“Yeah, no thanks to you, why didn’t you go where I landed?” she chastises you.

“I’m sorry! I was hit out of the sky by blondey here,” you jab a thumb over your shoulder, pointing at an embarrassed Jaune.

“Whatever, luckily Carter here found me, he’s pretty nifty with those axes of his. Ashley gestures to the guy she’s been with. He’s a very tall individual, wearing khaki cargo shorts and a red shirt with its sleeves rolled up, over it he wore a green waistcoat. His hands had leather bracers on them, as he held two green coloured combat axes. He was dark skinned, with a buzzcut black hairstyle and had a calm air to him.

“Thanks for keeping her safe man”. You nod in gratitude.

“No problem, though she mostly saved me to be honest. It’s (Y/N) Luman right?” he asks you.

“That’s me, and this here is Ninia Topaz, Carter…”

“Harcole,” he finishes.

“This is nice and cuddly guys, but you’re missing this,” Ninia interrupts, pointing over to the Deathstalker. The Grimm was now stuck in place, with its tail frozen to the ground. Both Weiss and Ruby were running back over, with Yang hugging her sister when she arrived.

“Guys, that thing is circling back round,” Blake comments, gesturing to the Nevermore in the distance.

“Then let’s not stick around,” Weiss suggests.

“She’s right, we just need to grab a relic and go,” agrees Ruby. Everyone nods, with the pairs who haven’t picked a piece grabbing one and preparing to move out. However, your gaze hasn’t left the sky.

“We have a problem,” You say, grabbing everyone’s attention. All twelve of you see what you mean. “There’s a second Nevermore”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for reading! If you want to leave a comment please do, always love to hear what you think! Random fact, Luman's inspiration in regards to his weapons are semi-inspired from supernatural, with his daggers resembling the ones used by angels in the show.


	5. Light

“There’s no way we can handle two Nevermores and a Deathstalker at once!” Jaune exclaims.

“I have to agree with him,” says Weiss, giving an indication of how serious the predicament was through her concurrence with Jaune for once.

“What do we do then? We can’t outrun them all forever,” Ren points out. Everyone stood in silence, no-one offering a better solution. However, you did have a plan.

“How about we split up? We’ll have a better chance then,” you suggest. The group looks around to each other, giving off a number of nods and shrugs in agreement.

“It’s better than nothing,” Ruby is the first to speak up, “How do you want to do this?” she asks you. Everyone was now looking at you, luckily you had thought this through though.

“Right,” you begin, clapping your hands together. “My wings are operational, so how about I see if I can draw at least one of the Nevermores away from the pack? I can take Ninia, Ashley and Carter with me to deal with it,” you turn to the three of them and they all nod without hesitation. Continuing, you turn to the remaining eight. “Whilst you three take the remaining Nevermore and the Deathstalker away from here and deal with them,” you finish. This was the first time you had taken charge like this, and you were worried it wasn’t the best plan. However, everyone seemed on board, with even Pyrrha and Weiss agreeing.

“Alright! Let’s move out team!” Ruby yells, running off north, with her seven compatriots on her tail.

“You sure about this (Y/N)?” Ashley asks you. You give her your signature cocky grin and extend your wings.

“Please,” you say, powering up the thrusters. “I’ll try and bring it over to another clearing, be ready and keep up!” Upon finishing the sentence, you launch into the sky, heading straight for the two Grimm. One of them sees you and lets out a deafening screech, beginning to fly faster toward you.

“Ah some good old chicken then?” you chuckle, kicking up the speed. The two of you are headed for a collision, as the monster opens its mouth to catch you in one bite. You don’t waver though, keeping your course straight as you get closer and closer. Suddenly you are meters away, and just before it snaps its beak shut, you retract your wings and roll to the side, narrowly dodging it and flying down the length of its enormous body. After reaching its tail, you reactivate your pack, turning around to face it whilst hovering in place. It shakes its head I confusion, before beginning a large turning arc back around to you. The other is still flying after the group that has left however, and you look down to see the Deathstalker disappear into the trees after them too. The plan was working! Although the Nevermore had turned quite quickly, and as already making its way back to you.

“What was part two again?” you ask aloud, immediately shooting off away from the bird. Despite going quite fast, it was gaining on you, flapping those ginormous wings so hard some of the trees shook below. You pushed your own wings as hard as they could, whilst scanning the ground for an area to land with your allies.

It’s not long before you find somewhere, diverting your course and diving toward it. In the corner of you eye you could see orange blurs appearing and disappearing below the tree lines. Ninia was keeping up!

But unfortunately, so was the Nevermore, which was closing a worrying amount of distance on you. With no other option, you roll so you’re on your back and face the creature, aiming your wrists at it and opening fire on it. You pepper its face with bullets, and it screeches in complaint. Though it doesn’t appear to be damaging it, it slows down significantly enough to allow you get away.

You turn back around and head down to the clearing. Once low enough you cut off the thrusters, skidding across the ground and spinning round as you come to a halt. The Nevermore goes overhead and flies away, beginning to make a large turning arc in the distance.

“So, what’s the plan now?” you hear Ninia say behind you, as her, Ash and Carter jump through a gate and rally to your side.

“Uh… take it down?” you say unconvincingly.

“Inspiring…” Carter mutters, rolling his eyes.

“Let’s keep chipping away at it for now until we find a better solution,” you say, with no-one else coming up with a better plan. Everyone prepares themselves. Carter spins his axes around, light on his feet and ready for anything. Ninia flicks her wrists down, and two metal coils unwrap from her arms. After they drop, they become more rigid, bending around like tentacles, brandishing a sharp point at the end. Ashley simply stretches her arms and cracks her neck, before getting into a hand-to-hand combat stance. Whereas you kneel down, pressing your fingertips to the floor, extending your wings up as if presenting them.

All four of you watch the Grimm, as it begins to fly back down to you. All of you hold your ground as it swoops down into the clearing. It rears up and brandishes its talons, ready to attack.

“Now!” you yell, and you all dodge in various directions, either rolling, jumping or flying as the Nevermore’s claws dig into the ground. You each begin your own methods of attack. Ashley, who backflipped backward from the attack, jumps up gives it mean right hook, forcing its head to the side, though not incapacitating it. Ninia takes the opportunity to lash out her coils and wrap them around its neck. She tries to pull it down the best she can, allowing Carter to run over and get a few swipes in at its face. It has no affect however, and the Nevermore jerks its head to the side, knocking him off his feet. The motion also throws Ninia off balance, and the Grimm rears up, pulling Ninia up with it. She loses her grip and she begins to tumble through the air. You’re about to go catch her, but before she’s about to hit the ground, she opens a gate flat against the floor. She flies through it, reappearing through another one nearby as she tucks and rolls safely.

“Nice moves,” you say to her. She winks at you, and brings her attention back to the fight. Carter and Ash are now double teaming the beast, taking in turns to attack it. The axe-wielder is switching between hacking away at its torso and twisting his weapons around, holding them by the blade and firing bullets out of the handles. Meanwhile, Ashley continues her hand-to-hand combat routine, upper-cutting and dealing out mean hooks where possible. A particularly heavy punch from her causes the Grimm to stumble back a few paces, and Carter immediately springs to action.

“Boost me!” he yells to Ashley, who nods and kneels down, holding her hands lower to lift him up. He runs to her and steps on her palms, as she launches him up. Holding out one of his axes, he hooks around the beast’s neck, swinging round and mounting his back. He takes the opportunity to fire his guns point blank at its face. The Nevermore lets out another cry, as it jumps into the air and begins to flap its enormous wings. Carter kneels down and grabs onto its feathers, as it flies off into the sky.

“I’m on my way!” you yell, taking off after it. You’re hot on its tail, putting all power into the thrusters to catch up. It begins turning once more, about to begin another assault on the clearing. You use its turning arc to close the distance, pulling up to the side of the colossal creature.

“Jump to me!” you call out to Carter, who gives you a reluctant look. He quickly shakes it off though, realising there weren’t many options, releasing his grip and hopping to you. You bank over slightly and catch him by the arm pits, holding him below you. He yells something to you, but you can’t quite hear him over the winds. Giving him a quizzical look, he points over to the girls, as you see the Nevermore is beginning another attack. Instead of flying directly into them however, it pulls up and rears back its mighty wings, before flapping them with immense force as countless amounts of feathers fly toward the two students. Ashley leaps behind Ninia, who has brought up a gate in defence. She places the second underneath the Grimm, as its attack is sent back up into it. You immediately have a plan.

“I have an idea!” you tell Carter, who nods as you fly back to your friends. Landing next to them, you see that Ninia is looking worn out.

“You okay?” you ask her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“Just a little… Worn out,” she huffs, clearly using her Gateway was taking its toll.

“Do you think you can open one more?”

“Maybe… what do you have in mind?” she questions you.

You simply give another grin. “Wait for my signal,” you take off again, heading straight for the Nevermore. It’s still slightly dazed from its own redirected attack. You hover in close and wave your arms at it. “Hey ugly! You hungry?” A ear -piercing screech is the answer you need, as you kick in the power to your wings, flying straight up. Without hesitation, it follows you up, taking massive flaps to match the speed you’re going. You keep flying up, looking at your watch to gauge the height. 5000ft, 5500ft, 6000ft. At 6500ft, you cut off your wings and let momentum carry you for a second. You look down and see it is still following you, but isn’t very close. You twist your body so that your head is facing downward, as gravity begins to pull you back down. Now on collision course with the Nevermore, you prepare yourself. As soon as its about to try and gobble you up for the second time, you fire off a single burst of power to the right, barrel rolling out of the way. You look behind you and you see it let out a cry in frustration, angle itself down to chase you back down. Grinning as the plan held together, you make yourself as thin as possible, gaining as much speed as possible. You can hear the furious winds beckoning off its wings as it attempts to close the distance as you reach terminal velocity. You’re far enough from the ground that you know you should pull up, but instead you engage the thrusters, gaining even more speed. The floor is getting very close now, and you know it’s too late to stop.

“NINIAAAA!” you scream, hoping that your voice carries over to her. In a split second before you crash into the grass, a gate opens, and you shoot through it, reappearing through another one that is pointed at the impact zone, as you see the Nevermore smash into the ground with astounding force. You’re quite a distance away, but still maintain your speed as you fly through. The Nevermore is flat against the ground, but it is already trying to slowly lift its head. Ninia lashes a coil round Ashley’s human wrist, and swings her round, as she hurls her toward the fallen Grimm. She swings her robotic fist in an upward arc, causing the creature to rise, presenting you with the perfect target. In the split second you have to react, you extend your daggers and hold them in front of you, as you impale the creature with so much power you pierce its stomach, toppling it over onto its back. It lets out one last screech as it falls to the ground. You hold onto your weapons, catching your breath, as the monster begins to dissolve into nothing.

Regaining your stamina, you unsheathe the blades from it and jump off, re-joining your allies. They’re all looking equally as tired, with Carter bent over, Ashley kneeling down on both legs and Ninia sat on the floor. You have a massive grin on your face as you chuckle.

“I think that went well,” you comment. Ash smirks, giving you a smile.

“Nice thinking, birdy boy,” she says.

“Come on! After how freaking cool that was, you’re calling me that?” you complain.

“Birdy boy huh?” Ninia giggles, “I like it”. Even Carter can’t help but laugh.

“Guys really?” you look down your friend, who is looking pleased with herself. “How could you?” you say in mock betrayal. She shrugs and begins to get up.

“We should make a move, I’d rather not imagine what is still out there, and we did leave the rest with more stuff to fight,” Ashley says.

“We also have an objective to finish,” Carter adds on, as he also regains his composure. Everyone in the group nods in agreement, as you all walk off into the woods.

“Birdy Boy,” Ninia snickers, and everyone bursts out into laughter. Despite saying you hate it, you can’t help but warm up to the nickname.

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Every student was now back in the arena. Everyone stood in orderly ranks, each paired up with those they fought with in the initiation. Upon reaching the objective zone with your piece, you handed it to Glynda and was told to wait for all the students to arrive. Not long after you settled, Ruby and her gang arrived, and you all greeted them, exchanging stories on how their battle went.

Apparently, Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora and Ren fought off the Deathstalker at the edge of a cliff, with three of them speaking high praise of Jaune’s tactical commanding. The blonde blushed heavily, but you patted him on the shoulder.

As Ninia told everyone how your group handled your Nevermore, you were hearing from Yang and Ruby about their end. The way she described it, Yang made Ruby seem like she really came into her own, coming up with a plan that involved her being sent up a cliff and beheading the Grimm in one slice. You stared at her wide eyed.

“That… is hardcore, red,” you compliment. Much like Jaune, she also begins to blush.

“Oh stop, it was nothing, you-” she began rambling on, trying to be modest about the whole thing, as her sister smiles with proudness. Even Weiss begrudgingly admitted it was a good plan.

“Absolutely insane, but good,” in her words. After a little more waiting, the last group has arrived, and everyone is flown back to Beacon in various ships. After that you all were told to be here, ready for immediate placement into your teams.

“Cardin Winchester, Russel Thrush, Dove Bronzewing, Sky Lark,” Ozpin announces, as the four named individuals file up onto the stage. “The four of you collected the Black Bishop pieces. From this day forth you shall be known as, Team Cardinal!” a screen above displays images of them, with letters underneath them spelling their team name from their initials ‘CRDL’. “Led by, Cardin Winchester!” the professor finishes. The team leader nods, before the group walk back off stage.

“Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren,” Ozpin says aloud the next four, and they too walk onstage. “You collected the White Rook pieces, the four of you will now be known as, Team Juniper! Led by…” he pauses for a moment, “Jaune Arc!” The blonde looks surprised, and he points at himself. His team is elated, and Pyrrha gives him a friendly punch on the shoulder. Either she overestimated her strength or underestimated his balance, because he falls straight onto the floor. There are a few laughs around the room, and Pyrrha looks very sorry. Ozpin continues as the new Team JNPR leave.

“Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xao Long. You four collected the White Knight pieces. You shall now be hence forth known as, Team RWBY! Led by, Ruby Rose!” the girl immediately blushes, as Yang runs over and hugs her. Weiss looks a little surprised and Blake just smiles.

“Finally, (Y/N) Luman, Ashley Ghost, Carter Harcole and Ninia Topaz”. The four of you walk up to the professor, as your images appear above on the screen. “You collected the White Bishop Pieces. The four of you shall form the team, Light,” he announces, as the letters LGHT appear below your pictures. You look up to them and smile. This wasn’t the team you were expecting, but you were over the moon with who you were with. The excitement you felt was greater than when you flew around Beacon yesterday.

You were lost in thought, but you’re brought back when you hear the professor say, “-(Y/N) Luman!” it takes a second to process, but you realise that he’s announced you as team leader!

“Huh?” is all you can manage, as Ozpin gives a reassuring smile. You look to your teammates, and Ninia gives you a wink, Carter holds up a thumb and Ashley puts her arm around you.

“Ace work, Birdy Boy,” she says. You don’t even complain at the nickname.

“Thanks, Smokey,” you reply ruffling her hair.

“It seems this is going to be, an interesting year,” Ozpin addresses all the newly formed teams, and everyone cheers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks once again for reading! Apologies for the long gap I recently started uni and have had no time. Comments are much appreciated of course, and I hope you liked this chapter!


	6. Fearless Leader

It is five in the morning. You’re up really early, considering that class doesn’t start until 9 o’clock, but you hadn’t slept much at all last night. The mixture of anticipation of your first set of classes, and the still giddy feeling you had about your new team prevented you from catching much rest.

_Your_ new team. It was an odd thing to think, as people had always joked around that you were a very disorganised person, and to be fair you agreed. Though you felt like you were a half-decent fighter, and were exceptionally good with technology, you never figured you could lead a team. Yet here you were, with three students you were in command over, one of them being your best friend for years.

You sit up on your bed and swing your legs off the edge, placing your feet on the floor. All four of you were in the same room, with the four beds placed in a line against the wall opposite the door. It was certainly spacious enough, and it wasn’t like you all had brought a lot of belongings to take up the room, though for now most of everyone’s stuff was still packed. You look over your teammates, whom are all still tucked in bed, somehow sleeping soundly. You figured they were still tired from yesterday, Ninia especially, considering the number of Gateways she used during the fight.

Slowly standing up, being cautious over every movement as to not create a loud creaking in the floor, you work your way over to your stuff. You dress yourself in your usual clothes, and slip on your pack. Making your way to the window, once again careful of making noise, you swing it open, breathing in the fresh sea air. The view from your room was exactly what you would want. It was high up and had a beautiful view of the front courtyard of the academy. You could see the cliff edge, the sea and Vale even further off in the distance. The sun hadn’t risen yet, causing the sky to be a warm orange. “Kind of like Ninia’s eyes” you thought to yourself, not quite sure as to why that comparison came to mind.

With a delicate movement, you climb out of the window, sitting on the edge and dangling your legs off. Taking one quick look behind you to be sure you hadn’t woken anyone, you slide off. You let yourself fall for a while before activating your wings, as the thrusters could be quite loud. You fly down to the courtyard, soaring over it and to the cliff. You touch down a few meters from it, walking over to the edge and sitting yourself down. Immediately you look down, taking in what looked like at least a 2000ft drop into the water below. There were no railings, no fences or anything to keep people from plummeting off the edge, though weirdly enough this made you feel better.

Something about heights had always been exciting to you, though you never were sure why. It would give you a lot of weird attention back at the academy in Atlas, with everyone questioning this strange obsession you had. Much like most things, you would shrug, always saying “No idea, I guess I have vertigood or something?” The pun would make people groan or roll their eyes, and you smiled at the memory.

“Couldn’t sleep too, huh?” a young voice said from behind you. You turn to see Ruby, who has walked up behind you, removing her hood as she smiles at you.

“Ha, yeah not a wink. I’m assuming you’re also a bit overwhelmed about it all too?” you ask her, as you pat the ground next to you invitingly. She hops on over to you and sets herself down, looking at the view you across the water.

“Yup. I just… team leader?” she says, wide eyed.

“Right? Like there were so many better options I feel,” you say, stammering as you realise what you were saying. “As in for me! I can’t say about you. Well, what I meant is I haven’t actually seen you fight, I’m sure you’re a good pick-” you ramble, as Ruby giggles at your attempted compliment.

“Don’t worry, I get what you meant,” she reassures. “I just don’t have a clue what I’m doing, so I don’t know why Ozpin picked me,” she continues, sighing heavily.

“You and me both. But hey,” you nudge her in the shoulder, “maybe we could trade notes, see if we can’t work out this mess together, eh?”

She stares at you, gazing in wonder with her silver eyes. “I think that’d be good,” she replies. The two of you sit in silence for a bit.

“You can see my home from here,” Ruby perks up, breaking the quiet, as she points to Vale.

“Really?”

“Yeah. Well not my actual home, my home from home,” she pauses and furrows her brow. “No, this is now my home from home… I mean my last home from home”. Seeing that you’re confused she spreads out her hands. “Signal! I mean Signal Academy!”

“Ah right! So that’s where you went before here?” you ask.

“That’s right, trained by my uncle to use my scythe there”.

“You use a scythe?” you whistle, “that’s something I haven’t seen”.

She raises an eyebrow at you. “and I’ve never seen _anyone_ use wings”.

“Touché,” you relent, “bet you miss your friends huh? What with you being skipped two years,” your comment makes her a little sad.

“Yeah, I do. But I’ve made so many friends here at Beacon! Which is something I was _not_ expecting to do…” she mutters the last bit and you can’t help but chuckle.

“Well you’re doing a good job so far,” you stand up and brush yourself off, reaching down to offer to help her up. Ruby accepts and you hoist her up.  She’s lighter than you thought she’d be.

“I’m going to head back, should get my lot to unpack before lessons in a few hours”. You point to your backpack. “Want a lift?” you offer.

Ruby looks excited, and almost takes you up on it, but shakes her head. “Nah, I should probably walk, that and you wouldn’t want to scare my sister…”

You nod, recalling her hair exploding in the forest yesterday. Extending your wings and giving a quick two-finger salute, you launch away.

Gently gliding to your window, you retract your wings and catch hold of the ledge, hoisting yourself up and into the room. Unlike your graceful flying, your landing was less so, as you flop onto the floor, flipping onto your back. You pull your head up and see your three teammates paused in the middle of unpacking the rest of their stuff, giving you a blank look.

“See? Toldja,” Ashley says, giving a raised eyebrow look to Carter. He raises a hand in defence, with the other holding a pile of neatly piled up clothes.

“Fair enough, but it was draughty so excuse me if I forget next time”.

“And tell me it wouldn’t be funny to see the look on his face?” Ninia chimes in. You jump to your feet and point your chin up.

“That is no way to treat your fearless leader!” you say in an exaggerated pompous tone. Ashley rolls her eyes.

“Well could you unpack your stuff already, we don’t want to be late on the first day,” she points to your remaining stuff. From there, the four of you work on settling in. It doesn’t take long to sort out. You set up all your own tool kit area in the corner, where you could fix or upgrade weapons and equipment, Ashley places a pedestal for her arm near her bed and Carter brings out a case filled with fire based dust crystals.

“It’d be no fun if I just told you?” he says to you, upon asking him what it’s about. Finally, Ninia has a dozen posters on the wall closest to her bed, comprising of bands, movies and a few other groups or things you don’t recognise. The four of you stand by the door to inspect it all. No-one shows distaste, with everyone giving nods of approval.

“This will do nicely, I think,” Ashley comments.

“Shall we take a picture? Something to look back on?” Ninia says, waving her scroll in the air. You smile and put your arms around Ash and Carter and draw them in, with a surprised sputtering from Carter. The Faunus extends her arm out, holding her other hand to her face and making a “V” shape with her fingers.

“Say… Light!” you say. As Ninia snaps the picture, you see Carter grinning, Ashley rolling her eyes but smiling all the same, you pressing your face into her shoulder with a goofy look and Ninia closest to the camera in her pose, winking at the same time. You all gathered round to look. Carter made a complaint about his hair, Ashley made a comment about how you made her look stupid and Ninia held her scroll away so no-one could try and delete it. Whereas you just stood in silence, holding in the urge to laugh at how warm the group made you feel inside. This was day one of what felt like paradise.

“Hello? Remnant to ‘fearless leader’?” Ashley waved her mechanical arm in front of your face, with Ninia snorting in the background.

“Oh, yeah?” you ask.

“Well what’s our first class?” she questions you, sounding like she was repeating herself.

“And when is it?” Carter chimes in.

“Right!” you pull out your scroll and look at the picture of the timetable you were sent a few minutes ago. “So… we have Grimm studies with Professor Port at 9 o’clock first”. Twisting your arm, you look at your watch, “and we have 20 minutes until then, how about we take a slow stroll over?”

Ashley gives you a quizzical look. “You? Walk?”

You give a shrug, “As leader I will have to be amongst the common folk sometimes,” you narrowly dodge a punch from Ash as you all make your way out of the room and to class.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You had been sat in your seats for five minutes, with only seconds before class was to begin. The professor was at the front sorting through some papers and other things at his desk whilst he waited. He was quite a pompous looking person, wearing a maroon double-breasted suit that was highlighted with gold piping and buttons. He had grey hair with a thick moustache that covered his mouth completely. Without being insensitive you would describe him as quite a large individual, but he looked very friendly. You almost didn’t see how he could be a trained hunter.

The classroom was set up with rows of gradually ascending semi-circular desks the curved around the back of the room. At the front, behind his desk, which was situated in the centre, the wall had detailed sketches of various types of Grimm on posters along the wall. Higher up, a weapon is mounted to a plaque, which you assume belongs to the Professor. It is a large blunderbuss gun with two axe blades attached to the stock.

Moments before the lesson was about to begin, both team RWBY and JNPR burst through, rushing to their seats. RWBY sat themselves in the row in front of your group and JNPR sat somewhere up near the back. Seeing that everyone is now present, the Professor stands up and take position in front of his desk. After clearing his throat, he begins class.

“Monsters! Demons! Prowlers of the night!” he starts off saying, gesturing to the images behind him. “Yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names, but I merely refer to them as prey! Hah ha!” he lets out a guffaw of a laugh, holding a fist over his body. He seems to look for a response, but no-one says a word. “Uhh, and you shall too, upon graduating from this prestigious academy. Now as I was saying, Vale, as well as the other three kingdoms, are safe havens in an otherwise treacherous world. Our planet is absolutely teeming with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces”. The Professor has begun to pace the length of the lower desks, gesturing in exaggerating ways as he does. “And that’s where we come in. Huntsman!” he proclaims, pointing to himself. “…Huntresses!” he gives Yang a wink, which causes even you to recoil at how weird that was. He continues nonetheless. “Individuals who have sworn to protect those who cannot protect themselves. From what you ask? Why… the very world!” raising his fist into the air, only one other student from the back gives a small cheer in response. “That is what you are training to become. But first, a story. Me!” Port begins to rant off on a tale from his youth, though you completely zone out and lean over to Carter, who is sat to your left.

“Is he actually going to teach us something?” you ask. “I was kind of hoping Grimm theory would be a bit more… practical?”

Carter shrugs. “No idea, to be honest I’ve been watching Ruby,” he points down in front of him and you can see the young student scribbling on some paper. From here you can see she’s making a crude doodle of the professor. She shows it to her team and Yang snorts, with you also chuckling a bit. Port clears his throat, clearly signalling for silence, but immediately resumes his story.

“You’ve got to admit, he’s an entertaining storyteller,” Ashley comments from your right, and you raise an eyebrow at her.

“You’ve actually been listening?”

She sticks out her tongue at you and you both return attention to the front.

“The moral of the story? A true huntsman must be honourable. A true huntsman must be dependable. A true huntsman must be strategic, well-educated and wise”. As he is saying this you notice Weiss glaring at Ruby, as she goofs, hardly paying attention to the Professor. “So, who amongst yourselves believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?” he asks the class. You notice Ashley about to raise her hand, but you hold it down.

“I think that would be a bad idea…” you say to her, as you look at a steaming Weiss.

“I do sir!” she proclaims, her hand shooting up.

“Well then, let’s find out. Step forward, and face your opponent”. Port turns to his side, not shifting in emotion as he gestures to a cage to the side of the class, that you can see two burning red eyes glaring from inside.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Did no-one else notice that either?” you ask your friends. “Seriously, was that there the whole time?

Weiss had momentarily left the room to change back into her combat skirt, as well as now wielding her weapon. She’s standing on the opposite end of the classroom, prepared for what will emerge. From the seats, the rest of her team shout in support.

“Yeah, represent teeeam RWBY!” Ruby cheered.

Weiss drops her stance for a second and turns to her leader. “Ruby, I’m trying to focus!”

“Oh, sorry…” she replied quietly, sinking into her seat.

“Alright. Let the match, begin!” the Professor announces, as he wields his weapon, which he has taken off the plaque, and slices off the lock to the cage. Almost immediately, a boarbatusk charges out from within, making a beeline for Weiss, as it lets out a high pitch squeal. Slashing at the beast, before rolling to the side, the huntress in training eyes the Grimm, as it comes to a halt and gives her a hungry look back.

“Haha! Wasn’t expecting that were you?” Port comments from the side, hands behind his back. Staying calm, Weiss makes an attempted strike, dashing toward the creature as it makes another charge. Her strike simply reflects off its tough hide however, and it catches her blade in its tusks. She is flung into the air, as she holds on by the hilt, with her and the beats tugging back and forth.

“Bold, new approach. I like it!” you’re sure the Professor is just joking, because clearly she didn’t intend to do that.

“Come on Weiss show it who’s boss!” Ruby continues to cheer from the side. Weiss is distracted for a moment and the boarbatusk retches the blade from her grasp and flings it behind it, simultaneously knocking her onto her back.

“Oho! Now what will you do without your weapon?”

As the Grimm begins to make another charge, Weiss barely dodges to the side, causing to ram into an empty desk. Taking advantage of the opportunity, she runs across the room and reunites herself with her weapon.

“Weiss, go for its belly! There’s no armour underneath-”

“Stop telling me what to do!” Weiss yells at Ruby, glaring at her. You wince at the words. That was a little harsh on the poor girl, she was only trying to help. Meanwhile, the Grimm lets out a sound between a squeal and a roar, as it tucks into itself and begins to roll toward Weiss at an incredible speed. At the last second, she produces a glyph and it stops it dead, causing it to land on its back. Using the moment wisely, she pops another glyph above her, backflipping onto it and using it to propel herself toward the creatures exposed belly, impaling it with her blade. As it lets out a last cry, the Grimm dissolves.

“Bravo, bravo! It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true huntress in training,” the professor commends her. “I’m afraid that’s all the time we have for today. Be sure to cover the assigned readings and, stay vigilant. Class dismissed”. He gives a final firm gesture, before the class begins to slowly file out. You notice Weiss give Ruby another seething look as she leaves without her team. Everyone watches her leave, as Ruby gets up and runs after her. You nudge Ashley and nod toward them, “we should go help them out”. Your friend agrees and you both jog toward the exit.

You and Ashley round the corner as you catch up to them midway through the confrontation.

“What happened to all the about working together? I thought you believed in acting as a team?” Ruby says, her voice clearly showing she’s hurt.

“Not a team led by you. I’ve studied, and trained, and quite frankly, I deserve better,” she says bluntly, turning her back on her teammate and folding her arms. “Ozpin made a mistake”. After finishing with that, she storms off, leaving behind a defeated Ruby.

“I’ll go talk to her,” Ashley offers, to which you frown in response.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I can handle this,” she simple puts, making off after her. You place your hand on her shoulder, and are about to try and reassure her, but a voice behind you interrupts you.

“Hmm. Now that didn’t seem to go very well,” Ozpin calmly says. He looks over to you. “As much as I’m sure Miss Rose appreciates your company at this time, may I request that I talk to her in private for a moment?” he asks you.

“Um…” you pause for a moment, but see Ruby give you a nod. “Yeah sure thing Professor, I’ll be around if you need me Ruby,” you give a two-finger salute and move on, leaving the two to talk.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ashley catches Weiss sitting at a bench on one of the open pavilions on the upper floor. She has her arms crossed and is looking over the view of the academy, though she is clearly not paying attention to the surroundings, absorbed within her own thought. Quietly walking up to her and siting down next to her, Ashley opens with a simple, “Hey”.

The heiress looks over to her, confused for a moment, but quickly shakes it off. “Hello,” she responds.

“You ok?”

“I… I just… Do you see what I’m trying to say?” Weiss asks, to which Ashley gives it thought.

“I see what you think you’re trying to say, but have you really looked at Ruby’s side?”

“She’s just a child! What could she-”

“Exactly,” Ashley calmly interrupts, not raising her voice at all. “All she’s been trying to do from the moment she’s been here is try and fit in. Like you said she’s a child, she has no idea what she’s doing yet”.

“Then why did Ozpin make her leader?”

“No clue,” Ashley shrugs, “Why is (Y/N) leader of my team? Who knows? Ozpin seems like a very wise person, so who am I to judge?”

Weiss looks like she is going to try and complain again, but Ashley places her hand on her shoulder. Not being assertive or chastising, but gentle, looking her in the eyes.

“Weiss, it’s been a few days, give her a chance,” Ashley smiles.

Taking a deep breath, the heiress stands up, noticing Professor Port is standing on the opposite end of the pavilion.

“I’m going to go talk to Port, thanks for talking,” Weiss gives Ashley a grateful look, giving no indication as to whether she’s been convinced or not, though Ash doesn’t really mind. She walks over to the Professor, as Ashley goes to leave, taking a few more seconds to watch Weiss before she does.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter wasn't as intense as the last one, but I still hope you liked it! If you have any comments I'd greatly appreciate it, but otherwise thanks for reading! :D


	7. Combat Class

You and your team were sat in the mess hall, with all four of you sat on a single bench on one side of a table. The hall turned out to be where meals would always be during the day, so the huge building was filled with other teams and students, all eating their meals. You and your group were in deep conversation, chatting away about general stuff, most of which was about class.

“I just feel like the amount of work Port has given us _already_ was a little much!” Carter was complaining.

“Why? You thought becoming a hunter would be easy?” Ash raised an eyebrow down the line to him.

“Well… no, but come on, five pages already? We’ve just started!”

You lift a fork and gesture it at him. “I’m with you on this buddy, this is waay too much work to begin with”.

“Oh, so you’re not smart enough to do simple work?” Ninia teased.

You’re about to come up with some retort, but you noticed that JNPR had come over and sit opposite your team and down a table.

“Hello!” Pyrrha waves, her voice overflowing with her natural optimism and kindness. Ren, Nora and Jaune also wave as they take their seats. Much like when you saw her on the first morning, Nora had an enormous stack of pancakes on her plate (what was her obsession with those?).

“Hey guys, we were just talking about the massive work load we’ve _already_ been given,” you say back, to which Jaune buries his head in his hand and Nora lets out a groan.

“Tell me about it,” they both grumble. Ren looks indifferent about it, but Pyrrha seems to be holding a giggle at Jaune.

“Well, I’m alright with it for now. I feel like it makes sense considering…” she trails off as she looks toward the entrance. You follow her gaze and see that RWBY had walked in. They were all chatting with each other, though Ruby looked a little tired. Other than that, both Weiss and Ruby weren’t at odds at all. Yang spots you all and waves her team over, as they take the spot opposite.

“Sup?” Yang casually asks.

“Uhh…” you expertly begin. You were a little confused as to how they were acting casual again, considering what was going on yesterday. “Not much, you?” you mean to say this to the team as a whole, but you accidentally direct it toward Ruby and Weiss more.

The heiress looks slightly embarrassed in response. “Better, thank you. After talking to Ashley and the Professor, I have realised I was being a bit… childish. I’ve talked to Ruby and it is all sorted”. For a second it seems like Weiss blushed slightly, and Ashley shifted a little uncomfortably. No-one else seemed to notice, but having known her a while you could see these subtle things with Ash.

“Yup! And I’m taking my job as leader a little more seriously,” Ruby chimed up, sounding as chipper as usual.

“She was up all night studying,” Blake confirmed.

“and Weiss has learnt why we don’t give Ruby coffee,” Yang added.

Weiss gave Yang a cross look. “I was being nice! I didn’t think she’d be like small child after having sweets!”

You could almost hear the eyebrows move as everyone raised them at Weiss’ decision, even Ruby gave her a confused look.

“Ok, point taken,” she mumbled, to which everyone laughed.

“So, what’s the next class?” Jaune pipes up from the end of the table. “Please don’t let it be a tonne of work?”

“Not even close, I’ve been looking forward to this since we got our timetables,” you smile with glee, though everyone just looks at you expectantly. “Wait, do _none_ of you know?” you ask.

“We were waiting for Ruby to tell us,” Yang says, looking at her sister.

“I thought Weiss knew?”

“You’re the leader!” Weiss countered.

You let out a sigh. “It’s combat class!”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Your class was held in the arena, with everyone at sat amongst the seating area surrounding the central stage area, where your teacher, Glynda Goodwitch was stood. She has one arm behind her back and her other holding a large scroll. You were sat forward in your seat, acting more attentive than all your other classes.

“Welcome, students,” she began, addressing the room as a whole. “Today’s lesson will be split into two parts. For the first I will have you fight members of your own team”.

You frown and look back to your friends. They all had similar looks on their face, except for Ninia, who was giving a mischievous grin.

“This will be to help you discern weaknesses and strengths within you and your allies, which is key to fighting as a team,” Glynda continues.

“Huh…” you mutter, begrudgingly admitting that it made some sort of sense.

“Before you all worry about who you will be fighting, it has been decided for you. I will call out the pairings and they will go to the locker rooms to prepare, then the fight will begin.” She brings up her scroll and taps a few times, causing two large holographic screens to appear above the stage.

“The first fighters will be…” two images appear overhead, and you can’t help but feel giddy. “(Y/N) and Ninia!” she announces, looking up to the two of you. You turn to your friend, now competitor and raise an eyebrow. She winks in response and you both get up and head to the lockers.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You and Ninia were now centre stage, ready to fight. Out of your uniforms, you were both now wearing the clothes you would wear during combat. For Ninia, this comprised of a black tank top with a sleeveless yellow hoody over it. She wore black trousers, that were rolled up slightly, and trainers that had a design on it that combined both yellow and black in a funky looking pattern.

She looks at you with her piercing amber snake eyes, that looked like spotlights analysing the scene before her. This didn’t match the expression on the rest of her face, which was a cocky and taunting smile. You met this easily, standing calm and relaxed giving her an equally smug grin back.

Despite knowing this was your friend, your competitive nature kicked in, making your brain work overdrive on tactics and strategy. Your first thought was her Gateways, which was a natural advantage she had over you, as you didn’t have a semblance. ‘she has to use them on ground level’ you recalled, giving you the perfect counter with your wings. She also had no long-range weapons, though her coils could have a larger reach if she needed, which could be troublesome. What worried you even more was that the roof of the arena had been closed, making flying a bit more difficult. As you were beginning to formulate a plan, Glynda announced “Begin!”

You were almost caught off guard immediately, as Ninia opens a portal on the floor and lashes a coil through it, with it emerging right below you. It would have lashed at your face, but you reacted in time, jumping back from it at the last second. In the split second you had to react, you reach out and grab it, pulling it behind you, causing Ninia to be pulled down through her Gate and out of yours. As she does, you lift a leg to kick her in the face, though before it makes contact she has caught your foot in her free hand. The two of you pause in this position, with her coil still in your grip, and your foot in her hand.

“Need a lift?” you say, as you engage your wings and lift off the ground, pulling her with you. Her grip on you releases and jerks her other hand in a sharp motion. The movement whips the coil from your hand, and she drops the ground, having only been lifted 3 feet up. You stay airborne and eye her from where are, strafing a circle round her in a taunting manner. Bringing up your wrists, you extend your guns, aiming them right at her. The moment you start firing she opens another portal in front of her, and reappears on the other side of the stage, sprinting out of it.

“Can’t touch this!” she yells, as she opens another to run into. You try and keep your weapons trained on her, though she keeps running through different gates, not giving you a clear shot and throwing you off. As you’re about to make a move, Ninia takes advantage of you hovering still for a moment, and emerges from a portal right below you, lashing out both her coils and wrapping them around your ankles. Knowing she didn’t have the strength or weight to pull you down, she leaps up to you, kicking you with both her feet with full force. You can only give out a grunt as you are thrown back from the impact on your torso, almost crashing into the ground. Ninia has used the impact to flip off your chest, though she has made the mistake of getting up high.

Quickly regaining your balance, you see she’s lashing out again, though this time you react, dodging to the side. Using the momentum of the move, you spin round and use the cover of your wings to surprise a counter with a flurry of bullets from your guns. As she falls, Ninia spins one of her whips around, creating a make-shift shield, though she doesn’t stop them all, with some shots hitting her. The damage isn’t significant, and you look to the screen to see her aura level hasn’t taken much of a hit at all.

Using another portal, she safely lands, rolling into a kneeling position on one knee. Not wasting another moment, you launch up and arc back, executing a loop and flying low to the ground, using your new speed to fly straight at her. Before you get close, you activate your daggers, wielding them as you retract your wings, rolling forward and bringing down both blades onto her. Your move is blocked as she forms a cross with her arms and holds them over her head catching your strike. The both of you pause, catching your breath for a single moment.

“Up close and personal?” you say.

“That’s how I like it,” Ninia wiggles her eyebrows as she pushes up with all her strength. You step back as she swings an arm back and down at you, coil fully extended. Rolling to the side, you instinctively leap up and over a lower swipe she had made with her other arm. Her arms are now crossed and she uses this position to swipe from both sides. You extend your wings again and shield the attack, using the remerged thrusters to propel you forward at her, causing you to land a solid hit with the pommel of one of your blades. She barely falters through, and brings back her coils to a shorter length. They then elongate and straighten, creating similar sized weapons to yours as she adopts a lower stance, her tail whipping up behind her. You spin the daggers in your hand so that you are now holding them with the point directed down.

The two of you catch your breath, as you begin to circle one another. Taking the moment to look up at your aura levels, you could see that you were winning but only by a small margin. In a sudden movement, she dashes in to strike at you, jumping up to hit from above. You narrowly step to the side, immediately aiming a stab at her lower back, but she blocks it with her forearm over shoulder. She spins round, keeping her arm where it is and elbows you in the stomach with her other arm. You’re lucky that your aura kept you from being too badly winded, as Ninia has already begun another swipe.

Activating your wings, you lean back so that you almost land on the floor, but you use your pack to cushion the floor and then push yourself back up again. Taking advantage of the surprise, you kick up and land a solid hit on her chest, causing her to roll back. However, she isn’t incapacitated, as she tumbles back and flips round into a kneeling position, flicking her arms out to let out more length of her coils.

“Don’t give me that look Birdy Boy, you haven’t won yet!” she taunts.

You realise that you are smiling, but that is only because you had concocted a plan. First you need to bait her into an attack. As your wings were out, you use them to get a boost in your charge, sprinting toward her. You fold the wings in front of your face, using them as a shield to block her next move, which she does, lashing out one of her coils straight at you in an attempt to break your defence.

Though you were waiting on this, and you remove the wall before her attack lands, skidding to a halt. As the coil is about to hit you, you catch it out the air and wrap it round your hand. In split second she has, you can see the slight flicker of confusion in Ninia’s face as you make this move, right as you kick the thrusters on full. You launch straight up, pulling her up with you. As you’re about to hit the ceiling, you flip over and plant your feet on the closed arena roof, pushing off and propelling yourself at Ninia, who is still flying up from the momentum. Your fist hits her squarely in the centre of her torso, and she is sent right back down into the stage floor. The impact causes her aura levels to instantly drop into the red, ending the fight. You land gracefully right next to her, right as Glynda steps forward.

“That concludes the match, (Y/L) is the victor!” she announces, as you lean down to your friend.

“Good fight,” you say to her, with only the slightest edge of boasting in your voice.

She narrows her eyes, giving you a faked evil look, though relents and take your hand. Her grip feels warm and rough. “Yeah yeah, mock me later Birdy Boy,” she says as she is hoisted up.

“Oh, I will, but it was still a challenging match, what with your Gateways”.

“Thanks, feel like you learnt from that?” she asks you.

“I guess I have, we can compare as team later yeah?” you shrug, and she nods in response, as you both make your way back to your seats.

“Well that was a well fought match, on both sides,” Glynda comments, showing no clear change of emotion in her voice, remaining as stern and formal as ever.

“The next match-up will be, Carter and Ashley!” she announces, their images appearing on the screens.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You and Ninia had retaken your seats, and were waiting expectantly for your teammates match. In the time you had, you were talking to Ninia about your fight.

“What do you mean?” she asks.

“Well you use your semblance almost instantly, which does act as good surprise but you tire out a bit quite quickly, you know?”

She seems to contemplate this, though you can almost see this battling her impulsive nature. “I see your point, but you’re not perfect yourself”.

“Me? I’m perfect,” you flick your hair exaggeratively.

“Ha ha…” she laughs sarcastically. “You tend to stay back and think a bit too much, I got in a lot more attacks because you were _strategizing_ ,” she said the last word whilst doing inverted commas with her fingers.

“Very true, though I don’t know why you’re sassing me, my _strategies_ ,” you do your best imitation of her voice on the last word, “because it worked and I won”.

She rolls her eyes and is about to respond, but your teammates had now set up on stage. Much like you two, they were in their combat clothing. Carter had both his axes in his hands, and was spinning each one around, gently shifting from one foot to another. Ashley was rolling her neck around, then slammed her fists together and stood in her hand-to-hand stance. They both eyed each other down, not showing any emotion or relenting a cocky comment, much unlike your fight.

“You may begin!” announces Glynda, with your friends not moving at all in response. They simply eyed each other down, not making indication of attacking at all. Then, in complete sync, they both begin to step to the side, circling each other. Their eyes don’t break contact, keeping them locked on the other as they slowly end up switching places. Suddenly, Ashley jolts forward, sprinting right at Carter and jumping up to punch right down at him. To counter, Carter prepares to uppercut into Ash with an axe. Before either fighter make contact however, Ashley dissipates into a jet-black smoke and flows right through him.

“Whoa! Is that her semblance?” Ninia whispers to you.

“Yep, she can turn into a cloud of smoke and then reform in a different place wherever the cloud has reached, look!” you point back at the fight.

The smoke cloud has passed through Carter, and suddenly reforms into Ashley behind him, where she is mid swing for a closed fist back hand. The hit meets the confused student, as he is flung back by Ashley’s powerful metal arm. After tumbling across the floor, and receiving a collective ‘Ooh’ from the class, he stands back up.

Looking at the screen you can see he has taken a pretty bad hit to his aura already. He doesn’t change his expression though, simply returning to his original stance. However, you can see he’s already re-thought his strategy, as he immediately strikes back. He throws one of his axes, firing a single shot as he does, which causes it to fly faster and spin harder. It arcs in a curved trajectory, but heads straight for Ashley. She leans to side as it whizzes by her face and imbeds in the floor behind her. In the second she was distracted though, Carter has charged at her, and quickly strikes her head with the handle of his other weapon.

The hit causes Ash to recoil, but she recovers and sends a punch right back at him. He effortlessly leaps up, placing a hand on her extended arm and flips over her, landing next to the axe in the floor. Not wasting a second, he begins a flurry of attacks at Ashley, mixing a variety of moves from slicing, kicking, and even switching to his guns and taking single shots at her. To her credit, Ashley blocks almost every single attack, using her elbows and knees to prevent hits from landing, and catching the odd bullet with the palm of her prosthetic. But Carter was pushing her back, with her not making much attempt to counter attack.

However, after a break in his attacks, Ashley takes the opportunity. She aims her fist down and punches the floor with full force, creating a shockwave that shakes the room, and sends Carter back a few steps. Ashley leaps up and toward him, turning into a smoke cloud once again, rematerializing to his left and getting a swipe in with her fist, before turning back into smoke. She appears behind him this time and kicks him in the back, and he tumbles forward, almost losing his footing. After taking a quick glance at his now quite low aura levels, Ashley gives him a grin.

“Let’s finish this,” she states, speaking for the first time since the class began. Carter spins back round to face her, seeing her prepare her next move. Raising up her metal arm, she activates its secondary function. The hand folds round into the arm, and is replaced by a long gun barrel. She reaches into a pouch on her belt, pulling out a fire dust crystal. Feeding it into a slot on her newly emerged weapon, she aims it at her opponent and fires. A large column of flame is sent right at Carter, who doesn’t react in time as he is engulfed in flames.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One on one combat is really fun to write, if not challenging too, so I hope you liked it! Comments are appreciated if you want to leave one, and thanks for reading! :D

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed reading chapter 1 of RWBY: Light! Comments are greatly appreciated, I'd love to hear your thoughts about it! :D


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